FORA.tv Speaker - Bina Venkataraman

Biography

Bina Venkataraman designs and leads international projects, and helps drive the nation’s science and technology agenda. She teaches undergraduate engineers at MIT to speak and stretch beyond their disciplines, and writes for publications including The New York Times and The Boston Globe. She is committed to deploying innovation and technology to catalyze social impact, especially in the realms of global health, the environment, and education.

Bina currently serves as director of global policy initiatives at the Broad Institute and as senior adviser to the chair of President Obama’s science advisory council (PCAST) — a role in which she works to inject sound science into the thinking of the nation’s leaders.

Bina is an alumna of Brown University and Harvard’s Kennedy School. Her previous work has included serving as a journalist in the newsrooms of The New York Times,The Boston Globe, and The Christian Science Monitor; developing an HIV/AIDS hospital in Vietnam; and managing communications and research for the Rainforest Alliance, an international conservation organization.